Horses and Reindeers
by IShipAlmostAnythingYaoi
Summary: The story of how Eren became friends with Reiner and Jean. A kind of 'side story' for When Words Fail. Warnings inside. Please R&R!


**WARNINGS: CONTAINS SOME VIOLENCE AND A LITTLE BIT OF BLOOD, SEXUAL THEMES, AND A LITTLE BIT OF CURSING, BUT I DON'T THINK IT REALLY NEEDS A FILTER**

**This takes place between chapters 3 and 4 of 'When Words Fail', so Eren and Levi aren't together yet, just crushing**

**Also this is a load of crap, but I hope it satisfies your need for justice for what happened to Eren before (Feel free to write your own version, but let me know first)**

~~KMD~~~

Eren peeked his head around the corner and looked around the car park, there wasn't a single person in sight. Good. He let out a sigh of relief and began to make his way to the main gates, he had stayed behind after school for three hours helping his teacher, Levi, to tidy his class room. Then after that the boy had sat on Levi's desk and the two talked until Levi sent him home before Mike started to worry.

Eren was hoping that he'd be able to walk straight out of school, he had stayed behind long enough, surely _they_ wouldn't still be here? But he was wrong, he was always wrong. They would always wait for him at the end of every day.

A large hand clamped down on his shoulder and his body froze as he let out a strangled whimper. There was a chuckle from behind him and he prepared himself for the blows that were sure to come.

The hand on his shoulder pushed slightly, but there wasn't enough force to make him fall down.

"Thought you could hide, didn't you?" Reiner asked, his grip tightening painfully.

"Remember what we always say Eren? Tell us to stop and we will." Jean teased, stepping around Eren so he could look into his mismatched eyes. "We've heard your voice before, we know you have one, so use it, we'll give you two minutes."

Eren clenched his teeth and shook his head.

"No? Come on, we're giving you a chance. Time's ticking Eren." Reiner purred next to Eren's ear.

Eren shook his head again and clenched his fists at his sides.

Jean held up a finger and moved it like a metronome, counting down the seconds until the two minutes were over. Eren could feel himself shaking from the fear of what was to come, he was going to get beaten _again_. He thought about the pained look Mike would give him when he got back, silently begging Eren to let him do something, and he thought about how Levi would glare hatefully at the marks and ask Eren to him who had made them. Finally Eren thought about the new friends they had made and how they said they'd help him if he just let them.

Eren decided that he wasn't going to let this continue any longer, he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to hold back tears and prepared himself.

The pair were quick, but Eren was just ever so slightly quicker. His foot came down hard on top of Jean's, and he blindly aimed behind himself and managed to connect his elbow with Reiner's nose, both hits causing sickening _cracks_ to be heard.

They cried out in pain and while they fussed over their injuries Eren was attacking again, driving his knee into Jean's stomach, before spinning around and aiming a kick at Reiner's crotch. The boys fell to the ground with groans, and Eren continued to kick them, just like they had done to him, until some one wrapped their arms around his chest tightly and pulled him away from the bullies.

The boy struggled and kicked out, digging his nails into the arms holding him, "Let me go, damn it, those fucked up bastards fucking deserve this!" He screamed.

"Jesus Christ, Eren, what's gotten into you?!" Levi hissed into Eren's ear.

"Levi!" Eren gasped, stopping his struggle, "I don't- I'm sorry! I- they- they always do this to me Levi, practically e-every day, it's fucked up!" He cried. "Every G-God damn day... can't go a d-day without bruises... But I couldn't t-tell any one, because I-I didn't know how..."

"I see..." Levi slowly loosened his grip on the boy, "Is that where all those bruises you always have are from?"

Eren nodded, a few tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. He stared down at the two who had bullied him and saw Reiner staring back up at him with an amused expression, despite having a bloody nose. "I'm impressed Eren, I didn't know you had it in ya."

"Shut up!" Eren growled. "I want you to stop! I'm fucking tired of this!"

"OK then..." Jean grinned, "We'll stop." He sat up and tried to stand, but he cursed when he put any weight on his right foot, "Fuck, I think you broke it, Eren."

"You broke his foot?" Levi asked turning towards Eren.

Eren just shrugged silently, a hand scrubbing at the wetness on his cheeks.

The teacher sighed, "Alright, let's get you two to the school nurse, and Eren stay with me, I'll have to talk to Erwin about this."

The teen nodded and followed after the man quietly, "I'm sorry..." He muttered.

"Why are you apologising kid?" Levi asked.

Eren shrugged and shook his head, his eyes were focused on his feet.

Levi dropped Reiner and Jean off at the medical room and Petra, the school nurse, treated their wounds, though Jean would probably need to go to hospital for his foot. Then he took Eren to Erwin's office and explained the situation to the man, before taking him to the medical room to talk with the two boys.

Erwin called Reiner's and Jean's parents and asked them to come in, and Levi called Mike, and after a lengthy discussion, punishments were decided and everyone finally left the school at around eight o'clock.

All three of the boys were going to be excluded for the rest of the week, three days, then Reiner and Jean would get after school detentions every day of the following week and their parents now had to pick them up everyday so they couldn't wait around for Eren, and Eren would be allowed out of his last class a few minutes early so he could get of school before Reiner and Jean.

Mike pretended to scold Eren and sound disappointed, but as soon as they were home he grinned and high-fived Eren, "I'm proud of you, Eren. But don't go beating anyone else up, 'kay? Unless you seriously need to, in which case don't even give them a chance to blink."

~~~KMD~~~

A few days later Eren was sat at his desk in Levi's classroom, quietly eating his lunch as the teacher worked. He'd asked if he could have his lunch here, so he could avoid starting anything else with Reiner and Jean, but that didn't stop them from coming to the classroom.

Reiner knocked on the door politely before opening it, and Levi immediately pinned them with a glare before they could even step foot into the room, "Here to cause trouble?"

"No no," Reiner said quickly, putting his hands up in surrender, "Jean and I just wanted to know if Eren would like to hang out with us on Saturday? We're not planning anything nefarious, I promise! We have new found respect for you Eren, we're just trying to make friends."

"I don't see why I should trust you." Eren growled, staring at the bandage on Reiner's nose.

Jean was behind Reiner, leaning on his crutches, "What Reiner says is true, you told us to stop and so we will, now we're just trying to get on your good side. And if we try anything, I'm not saying we will, you have permission to rough us up again." He winked at the black haired man, which made him groan and face palm.

"I don't think this is a good idea, but it isn't up to me." Levi sighed, glancing at Eren quickly before his silver eyes focused on the two boys in the doorway.

The teen sighed reluctantly, "Fine, I'll give you _one_ chance to prove yourselves and gain my trust." Eren said before continuing to eat his sandwich.

"Great, meet us at Cafe Rose at, say, one o'clock? Sound good?" Reiner asked.

Eren nodded silently, not bothering to look in their direction.

"You can get out of my classroom now, I'd prefer it if you were only in here when you really needed to be." Levi said calmly, watching the two until they were out of sight. "Will you be OK, Eren?"

"I should be fine, they haven't tried anything recently, not that they've really had a chance... sometimes they actually try and help me with my work in the other classes I have with them though." Eren explained, packing away what was left of his lunch into a tub and then placing it into his bag.

"Fine, but call Mike immediately of something happens, don't let them walk all over you again, and tell me how things went on Monday."

"I will, sir. Stop worrying so much or you'll get grey hairs." Eren teased with a soft laugh.

"Tch, whatever. Now go enjoy the rest of your lunch with your friends." Levi huffed, returning to his work.

~~~KMD~~~

Surprisingly, Eren found that he actually enjoyed hanging out with Reiner and Jean, well, Reiner mostly, Jean was still kind of a dick and Eren hated the way he talked about Levi like he actually had a chance with the man. Eren refused to admit that he was actually worried that something would happen between the two, but he did decide that he would try and confess sooner than planned.

He met them at Cafe Rose like they had agreed, and then they'd all decided to go in and get something to eat before going anywhere else. They started talking and Eren found that it was kind of hard to find things that he had in common with the other two boys, but Reiner was hilarious and it was fun to watch Jean make a fool of himself by chatting up the waitress.

After that they'd gone to the mall and went into various clothing stores, giving each other crazy outfits to try on until they were kicked out for being too loud and forced to move on. They stayed until Eren decided that he was tired and needed to go home and take a nap, and Eren realised that they never even bought anything, but Jean had gotten the numbers of three girls and two boys.

He parted ways with Reiner and Jean and texted Mike to ask if he could pick him up, since the mall was quite far from their home.

When they got back he showed Mike some of the pictures that he had taken of their crazy outfits and Mike had laughed, saying how he was glad that Eren was making friends. On Monday, Levi almost said the exact same thing and Eren had grinned and said how he considered Levi to be one of his first friends.

~~KMD~~~

Things weren't always going to be sunshine and rainbows though as Eren soon found out.

The teen was waiting for his two new friends outside the main entrance to the school, phone in his hand as he texted Mike to say he would be home later in the evening, since he was going to hang out with Reiner and Jean again.

Eren's phone fell out of his hands when some one threaded their fingers into his hair and pulled him back into the building. His back met the lockers harshly and his breath was knocked out of his lungs, leaving him gasping for air while trying to comprehend what had just happened. For a moment he thought that it was either Reiner or Jean, but when he looked up, his mismatched eyes only saw a boy with brown eyes and short black hair staring back at him, a smirk on their face.

He sighed mentally, relieved that it wasn't the ones who had previously bullied him, but he was still slightly worried. He hadn't seen this boy around school before and he looked kind of intimidating. He was slightly taller than Eren and wore all black.

"W-who are you...?" Eren asked shakily, finding it hard to look in the other boy's eyes.

"That's not important, but I've heard a lot about you, Eren. I'm new here, see, and I don't know much about this place, but I got to talking with a few people and they told me a few things about you. Wanna know what they said?" The boy asked, stepping closer.

Eren nodded slowly as he pressed himself against the lockers.

"Really? You don't sound particularly excited to hear what people think about you." The boy teased, placing a hand on the lockers beside Eren's head and leaning in closer so his nose was just a couple inches away from Eren's, "Wanna know what they said?" He repeated.

"Y-yes! I do!" Eren nodded.

"They said you were a whore. A filthy slut that can't get enough cock." The boy smirked, his other hand moving to Eren's hip and a knee finding it's way between Eren's legs.

The teen froze and his eyes widened, there was no way people were saying that, right? Where the hell would they even get something like that from?

"But from the way you're acting, I can see that isn't true, or is that all it is? An act? People like that kind of thing, hm?" The black haired boy asked as the hand on Eren's hip slowly made its way up his hoodie.

Eren was about to scream, but the other boy was suddenly thrown of of him. Reiner was now pinning the boy to the floor and Jean was running along the corridor to get to them.

"What the _fuck_ do you think you're doing to Eren?" Reiner hissed, grabbing the boys shirt.

"Just confirming some rumours I heard." The boy smirked.

Reiner punched him, and the boy cursed and licked his split lip, "Leave him the fuck alone, or you're going to have to deal with Jean and I." The blonde growled, standing and hauling the other guy to his feet with him.

"Are you OK, Eren.?" Jean asked, as he picked up Eren's phone and handed it back to him.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." Eren said.

"Let's go find Mr. Ackerman." Jean suggested.

Reiner walked in front, dragging the boy along by his shirt, and Eren walked a few feet behind, Jean beside him. He nudged Eren every now again to make sure he was still alright.

They found Levi marking test papers in his class, he took one look at the four boys and sighed though he didn't really sound annoyed, "You just attract trouble like a magnet, don't you, Eren? What happened now?"

Reiner explained the situation and the boy was permanently excluded for sexually harassing another student on school grounds. Eren was allowed the following day off of school and when he came back, Reiner and Jean practically stuck to his side like they had been glued there. Only leaving when they had different classes or the school day was over, he trusted them a lot more than he used to, but he was still a little wary of them.

Most people were too intimidated to pick on Eren now, but when some one tried they were immediately dealt with by Eren's 'bodyguards'. The teen found himself looking forward to school a lot more than he used too, with all of his new found friends there to talk to and also his favourite teacher, Levi, who he would confess to soon. The thing he looked forward to most though was the fundraiser that he knew was going to be absolutely amazing.

~~~KMD~~~

**No Erens were harmed during the writing of this fic**


End file.
